Charles Dickinson (historical figure)
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Charles Dickinson (1780-May 30, 1806), was a 19th century American and nationally famous duelist. An expert marksman, Dickinson's dueling career included 26 kills before it was ended at the hands of future President Andrew Jackson.
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[edit] Life
Born at Wiltshire Manor, Dickinson grew up in the Grove community of Caroline County, Maryland. He was a successful planter, renowned duelist, and a popular socialite. Dickinson owned a house in Maryland for 13 years.
[edit] Death
Jackson's political opponents convinced Dickinson to insult Jackson's wife, assuming Jackson would not survive. At a party near Hillsboro, Maryland at the Daffin House plantation, he met Andrew Jackson and struck up a conversation about horse racing. Later the two would meet again when Dickinson had relocated to Nashville, Tennessee. A duel was set up between the two. Jackson waited, his plan was for Dickinson to shoot first and pray for the best. Dickinson then proceeded to shoot, and Jackson took one ball in the ribs.[1] Without wavering, Jackson then fatally wounded Dickinson with a .70-caliber shot to his middle, severing an artery. This was not, however, a violation of the rules of a duel. Jackson still got his shot as his gun at first did not fire at all. He died a few hours later, the only man Jackson ever killed in any of his 13 duels.[1]
[edit] Debate over gravesite
Dickinson's body is known to have been buried near the mansion of his father-in-law, Captain Joseph Erwin, whose Peach Blossom home and farmlands, as of 1806, occupied a large area west of Nashville. As the area was developed into Nashville's fashionable Whitland neighborhood in the first decades of the 20th century, successive land records cited the location of Dickinson's grave. A stone box marker stood over it until sometime after 1911. As of about 1930, the site, no longer marked, was located in the front yard of a home at 216 Carden Avenue.
In 1965, local historians in Caroline County, Maryland unearthed a lead coffin on the grounds of land once owned by Dickinson's family. Citing a story passed down in the family of a Dickinson slave, the historians asserted that the body in the coffin was Dickinson's, re-interred on his home grounds some years after his death.
In September 2007, a new owner of the Nashville property at 216 Carden Avenue joined with a Dickinson descendant and local historians to petition a court for the right to conduct a dig intended to determine whether Dickinson was buried there or not. If the court agrees, and if a body is found and identified as Dickinson's, plans call for it to be removed to Nashville's original City Cemetery, which has seen few new burials since the 1880s.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Wallace, Chris (2005). Character : Profiles in Presidential Courage. New York, NY: Rugged Land. ISBN 1-59071-054-1.
- ^ Wood, E.Thomas. "Nashville now and then: Diggin' up bones?", NashvillePost.com, 2007-09-15. Retrieved on 2007-09-16.
On Saturday, December 15, 2007 a small army of visitors related to the Dickinson heirs, members of the press, and a crew that included state and other representatives appeared in the Whitland Avenue area of Nashville to legally dig for his grave. Local neighbors pointed out the spot where those who lived nearby thought was the grave site. However, the expert team used a "ground effect radar" device and chose a spot a few feet away in the 216 Carden yard. Digging was careful, with sod preserved in squares and dirt piled on a canvas. A plot about 5 X 7 feet was dug down about 18-24 inches, where rather solid clay substrata was uncovered. It seemed not to be a grade. The spot was refilled, the "Radar" used again and a second plot dug about 5-6 and in line with the first. This also proved to be an unproductive site and was filled in with the original soil and sod. A third spot was identified by the "Radar Operator" parallel to the second and 3-5 feet closer to the street and sidewalk. This also turned out to be a "dry hole." It then was decided in might be wise to dig a trench paralleling the sidewalk. It would extend 20-30 feet and would be almost certain to expose the end portion of the grave (which is generally viewed as at right angles to the sidewalk. The trench would end at the property line and cross the location that locals have long regarded as the location of the original grave -- which might still have a coffin and body or might have been emptied something in the 200 years from 1806 to 2007. As one of those neighbors, a retired professor who has lived a few houses away for 30+ years, this seemed, finally, like a sensible move. However, a check back an hour or so later revealed the crowd gone, a small crew of workers was washing down the driveway and side walk, and the trench idea was abandoned because "it has turned colder rain is spitting down, and the decision is to pack up and quit." He was a great man because he wanted the poor to have a better life.
